Process for making reconstituted sheet tobacco



PROCESS FOR MAKING RECONSTITUTED SHEET TOBACCO Joseph Vincent Flore,Fairfield, Conn., Harry Allison Hooper, Larchmont, N.Y., and MatthewSailee Monte,

Stratford, Raymond Joseph Moshy, Westport, and Otto Karl Schmidt,Springdale, Conn., assignors to American Machine & Foundry Company, acorporation of New Jersey Filed Dec. 5, 1960, Ser. No. 73,562

No Drawing.

1 Claim. (Cl. 131140) This invention relates in general to tobaccoprocessing and, more particularly, to coated reconstituted tobaccosheet.

Tobacco sheet may be made by depositing a thin layer of an aqueous orother suspension of finely-divided tobacco and a suitable binder on aflat surface. The thin layer is then dried and removed from the surfaceas tobacco sheet.

If such tobacco sheet is used as a cigar wrapper, it should exhibit allthe features of a natural tobacco leaf cigar wrapper such as good colorand sheen, a natural feel, no stickiness in the mouth, no unusual orbitter flavor characteristics, good burn aroma and taste, and a goodburn rate, as well as water resistance. Although tobacco sheet yields abetter performance than natural leaf on cigarmaking machines because ithas more uniform physical characteristics than do varied natural tobaccoleaves, heretofore some tobacco sheet has lacked the aforementioneddesired properties.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide tobacco sheets,which may be used for cigar wrappers and in other smoking articles,which look, feel and taste like natural tobacco leaf.

This and other objects, advantages and features of invention will becomeapparent from the following description.

The invention relates to coating manufactured tobacco sheets with a thinlayer of protective material on either one or both sides. It may be usedon sheets made by a paper-making process, a process where dust isadhered to a sticky film or where dust is mixed with a binder. When thecoating is hydrophobic there is a marked increase in resistance tomoisture penetration. When coated on both sides, the sheet iswaterproof.

Clearly a coating must have more than useful physical properties. Itmust not be noxious or toxic in the amounts used; it must have anacceptable taste and appearance and not detract from the tobaccocharacter of a smoking article. Moreover, the coating material andmethod must be easy and practical to use with delicate tobacco material.

Many tobacco sheets have been made from water soluble adhesives whichare limited in use by a tendency to disintegrate in the mouth. Mouthpieces have been used to overcome this and reinforcing tapes have alsobeen used. However, a flexible, non-brittle coating is a far moreelegant solution to this problem.

When the sheet is used as a wrapper on a cigar, for example, the coatingis preferably used on the surface of the sheet which is outermost on thesmoking article. Both sides of the sheet may be coated when protectionagainst chewing a desired. Also, several successive layers of coatingmaterial may be appplied to the sheet, and in particular to the area atthe mouth end of a smoking article. Coating may be applied in the courseof sheet manufacture or on the finished smoking article.

The invention particularly concerns making a moisture resistant tobaccoproduct and includes or comprises forming a sheet of tobacco by mixing amajor proportion by weight of finely divided tobacco With a minorproportion by weight of water soluble adhesive, such as a 3,185,162Patented May 25, 1965 ice cellulose ether, e.g., ethyl hydroxyethylcellulose, in aqueous solution and drying the sheet so formed.Thereafter the improvement consists of coating the surface of the driedsheet witha solution of ethyl cellulose and iinally drying the coatingto produce a thin, flexible surface coating which protects the watersoluble adhesive and the tobacco from attack and degradation by externalmoisture and is compatible with the smoking quality of the tobaccoproduct. i

7 Example 0.5 part locust beam gum is added slowly, with agitation, to a2.5% suspension of 1 part of highly refined sulfite pulp in water andagitation is continued until solution is complete. To the resultingdispersion is added, with stirring, 0.75 part diethylene glycolhumectant, 0.5 part dialdehyde starch wet strength agent (as a 10%solution), 0.7 part diatomaceous earth and 6 parts tobacco dust (screenthrough mesh) which has been prewetted with water (1 part tobacco to 2parts Water). Finally, 0.5 part ethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose adhesiveare blended in carefully and the total solids adjusted to 10%. Theresulting dispersion is cast on a moving stainless steel belt. The sheeton the belt is dried and then coated with an alcoholic solution of ethylcellulose and the coating dried.

Since a coating which is hydrophilic will tend to remove moisture fromthe lips of a smoker and then cause a coated tobacco sheet wrapper totend to stick to the lips as does a'cigarette paper, a hydrophobiccoating on the sheet which may be used is ethyl-cellulose. This may beapplied in either an alcoholic solution or as an aqueous emulsion.

What is claimed is:

In the process of making a moisture resistant tobacco product comprisingthe steps of:

(A) forming a sheet of tobacco by mixing a major proportion of finelydivided tobacco by weight with a minor proportion by weight of watersoluble adhesive in aqueous solution and (B) drying said sheet, theimprovement consisting of the steps of (I) coating the surface of saiddried sheet with a solution of ethyl cellulose, and (II) finally dryingthe coating on the sheet to produce a thin, flexible surface coatingwhich (a) protects the water soluble adhesive and the tobacco fromattack and degradation by external moisture and (b) is compatible withthe smoking quality of the tobacco product.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 126,698 5/72Harris 131-12 X 303,493 8/84 .Culp 131-12X 864,948 9/07 Butler 131121,338,827 5/20 Goodfellow 131-17 1,671,182 5/28 Eberlein 13l-121,750,835 3/30 Chamberlain 68244 2,158,565 5/39 Andrews 13l17 2,443,2216/48 Burgstein 117--l58 X 2,613,672 10/52 Sartoretto et a1. 131172,613,673 10/52 Sartoretto et al. 131l7 2,708,175 5/55 Samfield et al131-l7 2,734,509 2/ 56 lurgensen 131-17 2,734,510 2/56 Hungerford et a1.13117 2,734,513 2/56 Hungerford et a1. 2,769,734 11/56 Handel 13l172,797,689 5/57 Frankenburg 13l--l7 (References on following page) 3 i o4 Detert 131140 FOREIGN PATENTS samfield et a1 131--140 Ro e g e a fir--131*17 1,451 1882 Great Britain. Carmellini et a1 131 17 OTHERREFERENCES C0 1ton 131 140 5 The Condensed Chemical Dictionary, pages 28and Phll -2 131-140 451; published 1956 by Reinhold Publishing Corp.,New Howard 131-17 k 7 Rosenberg 131-140 Rosenbsrg et a 4 131 17 ABRAHAMG. STONE, Puma) Exammer. Detert eta1. 13117 10, F. RAY CHAPPELL,Examiner.

